I got up to go for a quick dip and was quickly made the laughing stock of the local beach hawkers for being incredibly white. "where'd you get your body from?" yeah, right, funny F**kers eh? They were incredibly aggressive and cocky for people that are supposedly desperate for business. I still laughed at it though, I am freakishly pasty, and burn within minutes of exposure to the sun. One girl of about 14 was a complete smartass while trying to sell me her bracelets, she tried the "hold this for me" trick while she started to weave a new bracelet from my index finger, I warned her clearly that no matter what gimmick she pulled, I was not giving her anything, she then quickly left.
(after thought note: I must say that the Cambodian experience has been a rollercoaster and continues to be. We meet some lovely, friendly people and see and experience some beautiful things, but around every corner is the next annoying or disappointing interaction or experience. We are getting used to it, but the sad reality is that our guards are so permanently up that it is difficult to trust anyone. We have to be bluntly rude to the myriad of tuk-tuk drivers, hawkers, beggars, street vendors and anyone else that only wants to relieve you of your dollars and will relentlessly hassle you and tell you anything they need to in order to do just that. I understand that poverty and decades of repeated society destroying events will leave people in all kinds of horrible circumstances that I will never even be able to comprehend, it's just such a shame to see the impact that has on the poor people of this country. The worst of all is the parent who sends their puppy-dog eyed 3 year old in to the bars and restaurants to stand beside you looking all kinds of sad. Its 9pm and the kid should be in bed, but they are being used by their parents (or abductors in some cases) to extract money from travellers. We who grew up in western society are the luckiest people on the planet, and we should never forget it)
After this we got some peace and just enjoyed the beach time. An afternoon sun-shower passed over and created a beautiful rainbow over the western end of the beach and capped off a pleasant few hours after our initial introduction to Cambodia which had not been much fun. We slid in to the New Sea View Villa for the early bird dinner special. The place had no sea view, yet again solidify our experiences that much of the commercial cultures essence is built on lies and deception, but the food was incredibly tasty and great value.
We headed for the Canadia Bank ATM at the nearby Casino to withdraw some cash for our trip to the island, as it is still quite primitive with no atms or credit card facilities. Being 8:30 on a saturday evening it was the perfect time for the machine to swallow my card. Great. I called the banks 24 hour number and they told me I would need to go to the branch on monday to retrieve it, after my bank had contacted them to confirm they could release the card.
So we went to the island with hardly any money, but it turned out to be enough for the 24 hours we stayed. Our Treehouse bungalow was somewhat unique and very relaxing. Their was some interesting coral and fish in the waters right on our doorstep which made for some nice snorkelling, though the salt water seemed to spur on the expulsion of copious amounts of snot from my nose, the head cold I have had for a week shows now sign of subsiding.
The white sand beach that stretches for quite some distance from the peer almost all the way to the private beach that our property was located on looked like something from a postcard. But hidden just below the surface are millions of sand flies just waiting to sink their teeth in. We managed to avoid this but saw several people who chose to lay down and take it, they were covered in hundreds of little lumps, pretty nasty stuff. We shared our bungalow with monster geckos and I'm pretty sure a snake slithered across our roof during the night. I didnt sleep well as their was no air con or even a fan, just a mosquito net. It worked out ok as I was up in the middle of the night to shoot the brilliant Milky Way, zero light pollution out here. Sunrise came with some beautiful light and a thunderstorm.
Overall the island was a lovely place but was marred by the experience of seeing numerous western tourists littering, especially with the dropping of cigarette butts into the ocean or onto the sand. It is so infuriating to watch people do it without even a second thought that it is so shamefully wrong. Cambodia has enough issues with waste management, let alone tourists adding to the problem.
We spent a couple of days back in Sihanoukville with a pool at the hotel which was great to avoid the beach hawkers and the heat. We got my card back, sourced our Vietnam visas (quickest visa process I have ever gone through) and explored the local market. We found a little eatery called Mango Cafe which makes its own pasta fresh daily, enjoyed stupidly cheap "fishbowls" with Mekong Whiskey (Nasty, but awesome) and organised the next portion of our trip, heading for the capital, Phnom Penh, and discovering more of the history of the Khmer Rouge and the horrors of the killing fields.
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